Daily misery

While I was a student at Inti College, Malaysia, I was one of the student researchers for a joint research expedition organized by Inti Malaysia and University of Tanjungputra, Indonesia. The research was mainly about collecting statistical data on the ongoing transborneo economical activity around the border towns in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia and Kalimantan, Indonesia. That’s when I first saw with my very own eyes the living condition of the extreme poors.

It was disturbing to see children at the age of 6 to 10 working in the muddy field carrying sacks of grain and fruits that must have weighted at least twice their body weight each. I mean these kids were puny and yet they carried around those sacks and walked for like 3 miles without stopping. I am not even sure I can do that. It saddened me more to see teenagers holding ak-17 assault rifles guarding the village checkpoint across the border, asking for border protection money if you happen to not have a proper permit. The wooden houses in one of the border villages we visited were so horrible that I thought they would be better off living on the street. And then there were kids swarming our expedition vans whenever we pulled over for a stop. This is their life. I mean that’s basically it.

I could go on and write about what I saw but you pretty much get the idea. Certainly not trying to preach since Bono and Bill Gatsy already did that pretty well. I am sure some of you read about extreme poverty in newspapers or journals somewhere sometime ago. That’s the problem - we just read them.

You can feel sorry or sad after reading this entry, and stop to think for a while then move on to your next blog or www.yahoo.com and your life still goes on. Or you can just bleh this off and wish people should stop pretending like they really care about those kids in Uganda, hell your day is worse enough and no one even bothers to care. Or you can feel bad for like a bit since that tends to help you feel good about yourself for the rest of the day. Or you can buy 100 of these whitebands and help spread the effort.

I personally hate to guts people who talks like I did in the last paragraph - making other people feel bad just because they dont do something about something. Its not like if I buy freaking 1000 of the stupid whitebands and the world will turn into a better place. Its not like all my money will end up at the hands of the extremely poor kids somewhere in Somalia. Its not like it will matters at all. And most of all, I dont have to do anything if I dont want to and no one should try to make me feel bad about it.

But somehow, somehow….I just bought 50 of those stupid whitebands.

Now that you have reach the end of this entry and here’s the link to yahoo.com. What will you do?